Brackets and the Perception of Rreality

This is not a post about basketball.

Part of the "fun" of March Madness is the anticipation and progression of watching your point totals unfold. "I've got a great bracket." "I've got a terrible bracket." "My porridge is too cold."

But all the points are loaded at the end, making what we think are the important parts unimportant. If you pick the Final Four and those last three games correctly, you have a great, great, bracket, regardless of what has gone before. If you don't pick the eventual winner you have a lousy bracket, regardless of what went before. We approach the scoring from the wrong end, because that is the way we move in time.

Your career, your marriage, the War in Iraq, the economy, and the development of your character, you perceive in the same way, looking for signs to tell you what is to come. Because the larger events are unknown and we feel the need to narrate things as if we have some control and understanding, we over-read the details.